The Snake Pit: Analysis of Setting
"The Snake Pit: Analysis of Setting" explores the intricate relationship between the physical environment and the emotional landscapes of the characters in the narrative. The primary setting, Hestviken, is a family estate located near a stark, icy fjord, where the rugged beauty of nature symbolizes the evolving moods of the central characters, Olav and Ingunn. Initially, the summer scenery evokes optimism and vitality for both, yet this atmosphere shifts dramatically as Ingunn descends into despair, reflecting the oppressive and monotonous sounds of the ocean and relentless rain.
The manor house at Hestviken, a dark and sparsely furnished structure, encapsulates Ingunn's emotional turmoil and highlights the challenging lives of women in the Middle Ages, burdened by societal expectations and personal suffering. Significant symbols, such as a carved plank depicting a snake pit, serve to illustrate Olav's feelings of entanglement in his own struggles, including guilt and disappointment. Additional settings, like outbuildings and an unfinished church, further contribute to personal revelations and moments of introspection for the characters, contrasting their confined lives with fleeting moments of liberation, such as Olav's time at sea on a galley ship. Overall, the settings in "The Snake Pit" poignantly reflect the inner conflicts and societal challenges faced by the characters.
The Snake Pit: Analysis of Setting
First published:Olav Audunssøn i Hestviken (2 volumes, 1925; in English as The Axe, 1928, and The Snake Pit, 1929; included in the complete tetrology The Master of Hestviken, 1934)
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Historical
Time of work: Late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries
Places Discussed
Hestviken
Hestviken. Home of Olav Audunsson’s family, that is the primary setting of the novel. The estate is near an icy fjord, where ocean waves throw up spray against sheer cliffs and rock promontories, which, with fog, block the view in many directions. Physical features of Hestviken symbolize the moods of Olav and his wife, Ingunn. When they begin their life together there, both are optimistic, their feelings buoyed by the beautiful sights and smells of the summer farm. The fragrance of lime trees reminds Olav of his childhood. Ingunn feels healthy and beautiful as she surveys the pleasant scene. However, she soon notices other things that reinforce her downward spiral into depression, such as the monotonous booming of the ocean’s waves in the fjord and the seemingly endless rains.
Manor house
Manor house. Ancestral dwelling at Hestviken that has replaced an earlier and finer house that burned down. The rustic replacement is dark and sparsely furnished. Undset uses her extensive knowledge of medieval home furnishings to give a historically accurate depiction of the home layout and contents. In the dark rooms of the house, the lonely Ingunn torments herself over having borne an illegitimate child, leaving the child with strangers, and failing to be a strong helpmate for the morose Olav. Her plight reflects the difficult lives led by most women in the Middle Ages, lives made up of endless toil with few diversions, frequent pregnancies, and total dependence upon men.
A powerful symbol of Olav’s struggles is an old plank that has been carved to depict a snake pit. A relic from the former manor house, it forms the doorpost of the rebuilt home’s bedchamber. Its carving shows a man surrounded by serpents, one of which is biting his heart. Like the figure entangled in snakes, Olav is entangled in many problems, including feelings of guilt, Ingunn’s illness, and his disappointment with his stepson, Eirik.
Outbuildings
Outbuildings. In addition to its manor house, Hestviken has turf-roofed sheds, storehouses, and stables. Hestviken’s mundane structures are the settings for many scenes in which characters experience important personal revelations. For example, an old longboat shed is the location of Olav’s discovery that Eirik cannot distinguish truth from falsehood. A cow barn under construction is the locale for cavorting workers and Ingunn’s jealous reaction to Una, the servant girl.
Church
Church. Unfinished church between Oslo and Hestviken at which Olav, on the night before Ingunn’s death, stops to rest. Inside the cold, desolate place, he studies a piece of artwork depicting Christ’s Crucifixion, a sight that makes him realize that he himself should seek forgiveness.
Foster home
Foster home. Home of a poor family in which Ingunn’s five-year-old son has been placed. In the cluttered, dark environment, Eirik spends his formative years in the company of a disorderly pack of ragged children. This bleak setting highlights the dreary lives of the common people of the time and helps explain Eirik’s arrested intellectual development.
Galley ship
Galley ship. A break in the story’s dark mood comes during a summer that Olav spends captaining a galley ship under Duke Haakon. At sea, the horizons in view in every direction provide a great contrast to Olav’s enclosed life along the fjord, and his time at sea liberates him from the circumscribed life in his troubled household.
Bibliography
Bayerschmidt, Carl. Sigrid Undset. New York: Twayne, 1970. For general readers, reviewing Undset’s life and major works. A chapter devoted to Undset’s novels of the Middle Ages provides commentary on The Snake Pit, focusing on the moral development of the hero.
Brunsdale, Mitzi. Sigrid Undset: Chronicler of Norway. Oxford, England: Berg, 1988. Summarizes Undset’s achievement in the chronicle of which The Snake Pit is the second part. Comments on the significance of the symbol of the snake; discusses the hero’s relationship with his demanding wife, and his efforts to overcome his pride.
Gustafson, Alrik. Six Scandinavian Novelists. Minneapolis: Published for the American-Scandinavian Foundation by the University of Minnesota Press, 1966. Discussion of the four novels that make up The Master of Hestviken tetralogy. Describes Undset’s concern with the moral development of her hero, and highlights her technique of using historical events to illuminate human concerns.
Whitehouse, J. C. “Sigrid Undset.” In Vertical Man: The Human Being in the Catholic Novels of Graham Greene, Sigrid Undset, and Georges Bernanos. New York: Garland, 1990. Examines Undset’s view of human nature as it emerges in her fiction. Commentary on scenes and characters from The Snake Pit are interwoven into a discussion that highlights the novelist’s generally optimistic vision of humanity.
Winsnes, A. H. Sigrid Undset: A Study in Christian Realism. Translated by P. G. Foote. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1953. A biography of the novelist focusing on the development of Christian themes in her novels.